Living Lab -"Where we learn, experiment & research; testing & creating new ideas & ways of living"

 Phase IV: The Living Lab (2026)

Active Experimentation & Co-Design

January 2026: Bluewater Endeavours Living Lab founded. This is a locally-led, place-based, Resilience Living Lab, founded (initially in 2023 as an education and advisory initiative) by local Marlborough resident, Deborah Early (MMedScPhD).

With a background as a writer, author and educator she sought to share adaptation, resilience and place attachment insights and evidence-based expertise nationally and internationally. Further informed by her 2024 Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) marine studies, 2025 Lincoln University PGCert. Parks, Rec. & Tourism research and drawing on the quintuple helix (Public, Private, Professionals, People, Place), as well as insights from Regenerate Christchurch, this initiative has expanded to include others in her local community wanting to co-create their own resilient future.

Phase III: The Momentum Phase (2025)

Scaling through Collaboration

1 November 2025- 31 January 2026: Deborah Early selected as one of fifty attendees, and the only one from Oceania, for a special IOC-UNESCO Ocean "Summer School" training.

20th November 2025: Aspects of the postgraduate research report below were presented to the Marlborough Community at Te Au Pūngao 

10 October 2025: To coincide with the 8th International Adaptation Futures Conference (AF2025) in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand, the Postgraduate Studies report below was released to stimulate action following the 2021, 2022 and 2025 severe weather events in Marlborough.  Adaptation Futures is the flagship event of the World Adaptation Science Program (WASP).

2025: Earth Day with Marlborough Art Society, May with Marlborough (Marine) Biodiversity Forum, July with He Tai Pari | The Rising Tide

More severe weather events in Marlborough.

Seaweek - 10 March 2025: Notification received for completion of 2024 NZ Marine Conservation studies with NMIT.

Phase II: The Launch & Theory (2023–2024)

From Advisory to Action

2024: Earth Day with The Art of Nature and Arts in Health and also that year in conversation with Dr Wallace J Nichols.

2023 Bluewater Endeavours founded (an education and advisory initiative)

  From the Emerald Isle to the Blue Pacific Continent, (2023) in Blue Mind, Journal of Biophilic Design (6th ed.) (UK)

Cyclone Gabrielle, North Island.

Phase I: The Foundational Years (1995–2022)

Building Expertise through Exploration

For nearly three decades, the foundation of our work was laid across the world’s oceans. As an "Explorer of Oceans," this period was dedicated to understanding the complex relationship between land, marine environments and human health.

2021 and 2022: Severe Weather events in Marlborough.

1995-2020:  Exploring the Pacific, Atlantic & Indian Oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, Lake Erie, Lake Baikal & Wivenhoe Dam.

If you'd like to be involved, please contact us.

Credits to Photos Below: All are our own